Cody Rhodes Reveals What WWE HOFer Said To Him During 10-Bell Salute For Hulk Hogan

WWE's Cody Rhodes has revealed the short, motivational message that Sgt. Slaughter said to him, which motivated him to give it his all.

Slaughter recently appeared during the ten-bell salute given to Hulk Hogan on "WWE SmackDown," where Rhodes stood next to him. Rhodes, while speaking on "The Bill Simmons Podcast," praised Slaughter, calling him an underrated star, before disclosing the motivational words Slaughter told him.

"But I do have a selfish little Sarge moment that you would be the first person I've shared it with. But it was ...I mean, it gave me goosebumps. Unbelievable. Made me feel so good and also made me feel like, 'Oh man, I hope he's right,'" he said. "But we're standing there for the ten-bell salute for the 'Hulkster' and I'm standing next to Sarge and afterwards they're playing the video package and, you know, we're just out there and I shook his hand, shook Hunter's hand, and he [Sarge] said something to me and I didn't really hear it and I think I just said like, 'Oh yeah, yeah.' Just kind of like — and then I heard him and he goes, 'No, carry the ball.' It made me feel like 10 feet tall. I had a promo later that night, and I'm thinking, 'I got to go. Sarge just told me carry the ball, I better not let him down.'"

The moment happened on the July 25 edition of "SmackDown," which began with a tribute to Hogan. Later in the night, Rhodes cut an impassioned promo, evoking Hogan's name and demanding that his SummerSlam opponent, John Cena, bring his real self when they face off on Night 2 of the show. 

Rhodes also said in the aforementioned podcast that he was grateful to be around a few legends on that "SmackDown," which included Hogan's close friend Jimmy Hart, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and Slaughter.